The Mountain Path
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: As part of her recovery, Azula takes a trip into the mountains with Teo for company.


The solitude of a mountain was doing her well. The mountainside view did her stress boggled mind better. From where she sat, with her legs dangling over the cliffside, she could see more than she thought she ever would. From this vantage point, she could help herself to a sea of trees, the entire mountain range was carpeted with them. All around her, she could see different peaks in varying shades of green. A good many, from a distance, were shrouded in cloud. The puffy white sort. The sort that TyLee would have giddily pointed out were they still in each other's company.

The two were still on iffy terms. Extremely iffy, to the point where Azula felt as though she was one insult away from pushing her former friend away for good-one of the many things that drove her to the mountainside in the first place. But she wasn't alone, not completely. She had Teo for company. The boy had a knack for adventure but no companion to journey with. Azula didn't fancy venturing into the mountains on her own, even if they were decently close to civilization. And so the pieces fell into place. She and Teo would be in each other's company for at least a week, she hoped that she would like this boy or the week would be hell. A woodsy fir speckled hell without any of the fire that she actually liked.

The sun was going down. It was going setting in exceptionally beautiful shades that cast vivid rays of gold through the spaces in the trees. Azula wasn't too much for sunsets, but Teo was abundantly mystified. She thought that they ought to head back, trekking the woodland would be a difficult feat after dark. She wasn't fond of the nighttime insects either. But Teo proved to be just as stubborn as she, he had every intention of savoring the sunset. Of course she could always go off on her own, she had her firebending to guide her should it get dark, but Teo did not. Azula sighed, she couldn't bring herself him behind though. Truth be told, she enjoyed his easy going company.

"Look at this!" Teo exclaimed, pointing at the horizon.

"I see it. I've been seeing it for the past few hours." Azula leapt off of her rock, she brushed her hands off. "We should be getting back."

Teo tilted his head. "Already?"

"For someone who loves sunsets so much, you seem to have trouble gauging when they're almost over."

Teo chuckled. "I don't know, princess, personally I think it would be nice to walk through the forest at night."

Azula spared the mountainside view another look. The sky was rich with the pastel watercolors of the sunset. A few cottony clouds, dyed a shade of pink by the falling of the sun, swirled towards the lowest part of the horizon where the sky met rolling green peaks.

"Alright, fine. We can stay a little longer I supposed."

"You're the best!" He slung an arm around her shoulder.

"I know that." Azula half-smirked. Though she wasn't entirely doing it for him; the firebender had heard that the dragon-fireflies looked exceptional in the mountains. That they put on a very splendid show that one could view in any other area. She wouldn't say it out loud lest something dreadful happen, in which case she would promptly hit Teo with a, 'this was all your idea.'

For a good long while, the pair was quiet, soaking in the sounds of a fading day; the last bird calls as they began their journey back to their nests, a few cicadas, and the rustling of leaves and twigs brushing against one another.

Those bird calls turned to squirrel-frogs and the cicadas chirps became that of crickets and other night bugs. Every now and again she'd hear the howl of a wolf-bat or the hoot of a rooster-owl. One by one and then in sets of two or three began the flickers of the dragon-firefly lights. At first she noticed only one or two every few minutes blinking in and out as they crawled upon tree bark and between curtains of ivy. Soon they were springing up from the tall grasses in yellow flashing clouds. There was such an abundance of them they were almost hard to catch. She would go for one but then another would rise up and another and somehow, for some reason she wanted to take hold of them all. Consequently, she wound up empty handed with Teo laughing at her failure. "Shut up, you wouldn't have gotten up here if it weren't for me." She grumbled.

Teo rolled his eyes. His hands rested in his lap, one cupped on top of another. "Here, you can have mine." He un-cupped his hands and a cloud of dragon-fireflies drifted into Azula's face.

"Funny." She commented dryly.

"I know right!" Teo agreed, "you're always a riot to be around." He seemed to study her for a moment. "Looks like you caught one."

"What?" She squinted at him. He pointed to where her hair hung over her shoulder.

"You caught about five of them, actually."

When she said she wanted to catch the bugs, she meant in her hands. Yet she had a steadily growing collection of the insects lighting up her locks as they burrowed into her hair. "Gross." She muttered, trying to pick the bugs from her tresses.

"They weren't gross before they went into your hair."

He had a point, but she wasn't about to let him know that. "That's different." She commented instead.

"How so?"

"It just is." She scanned the path in front of her. At this time of night, fire or no fire, it would be exceedingly difficult to get Teo, his wheelchair, and herself safely down the mountain. She looked at her pack; she did have a blanket and a few pillows, a waterskin, and a decent supply of food. "I guess we'll be spending the night right here."

Teo blinked.

"Don't worry, I have what we'll need to last the night."

"What you'll need, or what we'll need?" He asked.

Azula rolled her eyes and tossed the blanket at him. It was her only one but she supposed that she had a naturally higher body temperature, he would need it more. She gave the clearing another scan; there was a small creek nearby and an endless supply of tree and cliff wall. It would suit them well enough for the night, they would just have to tolerate the less pleasant bugs. She'd done it before in the Forgetful Valley, she could handle it again. She would imagine that the insects in these mountains were much more forgiving than the nasty things in the valley. "Can you last the night?"

"Of course I can!" Teo declared. At least he wasn't being a wimp about it. Had she been with Zuko, the whining would come non-stop. If she were being honest, the prospect of him complaining the whole time was better than the idea of having the silence of no company. At the same time she was relieved that he wasn't there; much like she and TyLee, they were in the middle of mending a very tattered relationship. Getting stranded in a mountainous forest was just the kind of tension that they didn't need. No, she decided, Teo was the perfect companion. He took things in stride and went with the flow of things in a way that even she couldn't.

"I take it you would like a pillow too?"

He gave her a sheepish smile. "That would be nice."

She thought about helping him out of his wheelchair but decided that he'd probably get more comfort sleeping in it than he would sleeping on the ground like her. Instead she tucked the pillow behind his head and asked if he was comfortable.

"About as cozy as I can get when stranded in a mountain with a crazy lady."

The gave him a light swat on the back of the head. "I can take that pillow back."

"But you won't because you're a friendly crazy lady." He smiled innocently.

"Yeah, we'll see about that." She wrapped her blanket around herself. The forest was filled with so many chirps, buzzes, and yips that she couldn't recognize. They seemed to come from every inch of the forest and were surprisingly soothing. She looked to the sky, which was mostly obscured by a healthy helping of tree branches. But in places where it wasn't the stars twinkled plentiful, as though someone had taken a bucket of them and splashed them across the inky horizon where they swirled up to the zenith. "It's pretty." She noted.

"Me too." He remarked.

She was almost ready to snatch her blanket back for that one, though she couldn't disagree, he was a rather good looking boy.

"I guess you are too." He added somewhat to keep his sleeping gear, but mostly because he really did think so. She, still rather unused to compliments of the sort, mumbled a quite thank you.

Azula tossed her pillow against a tree and then helped Teo over to it so that he could sleep near her. She tested out the feel of it. It wasn't the most comfortable, but it would have to do. Anyways, the stars would probably keep her mind from it. She had a fondness for the night sky. "Good night."

"Yeah, night, princess." Teo yawned.

She curled herself up under the tree and tried to pick out the different constellations she had read about so long ago in the royal library. It was much harder than she thought it would be but it was just what she needed to help her sleep. All in all, being so high in the mountains and so far from the people and the busy life that stressed her so, Azula decided that there was no better way to calm her mind.


End file.
